UPDATE---To any who still care
Thursday, November 08 2018 @ 11:20 AM CST

Hi folks. Haven't been around much. Been away from making music while recovering from eye surgery. Also don't get much online time these days...Hope to rectify that soon.

Just started working on new material. Should be posting and listening again in a week or so.

On the other hand, it's hard to watch MJ in what is apparently its death throes. The notion of a big revival that circulated awhile back has fizzled. It's main architect seems to have dropped out altogether, and few of the old stalwarts are still contributing on a regular basis. To everything there is a season.

As for me, although I'll never completely desert MJ, I'm attempting to start up at soundcloud.com as WINDSOCK.

"People claim there is no truth, and they assert this as true; they say that man can know nothing, but this is something they think they know; they claim that 'life' takes precedence over thought, and yet this is something they think!" (Frithjof Schuon)

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Thursday, November 08 2018 @ 04:59 PM CST

I only wish that the "random song picker" that used to be a mainstay of the front page was still there.

Musicians are still here, creating good music, so I think that MJ continues to soldier-on.

I like it much more than SoundCloud, well, perhaps because it isn’t so well-known. I think that people post music here because they love music, not because they dream of being discovered and getting to live the life they write about within 10 days’ time of their first post.

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Thursday, November 08 2018 @ 05:44 PM CST

Dream...not so much...

I would just like to find another mj...one that actually functions first of all.

Also there's no gainsaying that things here aren't anywhere near where they used to be back in the day...

I miss the halcyon days of my very much.

"People claim there is no truth, and they assert this as true; they say that man can know nothing, but this is something they think they know; they claim that 'life' takes precedence over thought, and yet this is something they think!" (Frithjof Schuon)

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Friday, November 09 2018 @ 11:00 AM CST

How can MJ be improved? We can improve the content. We have to drive traffic to the site. Real traffic, as opposed to sock and meat puppet armies, these destroyed the integrity of the place long ago.

We have to do this to create value for consumers of the MJ experience. The notion that management is engaged in working to improve the site is not represented by reality. The site is maintained, and the case can be easily be made is being slowly diminished as the functionality has degraded over the years, yet it's core does continue.

If we drive enough traffic to support the cost of the upkeep I am confident the owners will continue to plug away. I will grant to them a personal stake in the works. I do not hold that a renaissance led by management will occur if pressure is brought for them to make improvements. They will ignore pleas, they need financial incentive. There is not enough financial incentive here to expect improvements on the management side.

I agree that no one will break out of MJ and enter the larger world of music from this platform. We are indeed our own little world. Big music will never allow independents to break their hold over the gravy train portion of the music buying public, the women 12-35. Big Music, by simply buying the works and closing it out, would destroy MJ before allowing that to happen. So, we have to create an alternative market.

We don't play live, which is how alternative marketing has been successful. In the past The Dead created their own market, as did Zappa, through relentless touring and by making independent venues their stomping grounds. We don't have that option. That stuff still works, but we can't do that...

We have to make content that engages people and drives an audience to the site through word of mouth. There is no other alternative. Giving away your quality work is difficult. Especially considering that it is easy now to earn by releasing your content through an online service that generates income for the content provider.

And here is MJs greatest threats. Because content earns money for totally independent producers in the contemporary world, the business model of the MJ founding world view is cracked. When MJs was founded there was no access to play for pay on the net. Other threats include the many sites which offer similar venues to producers without the cliquish qualities MJs is famous for... Finally there is the hateful world view of the self appointed gate keepers here who run anyone off who does not eat the culture as approved by their programing. Those are huge hurdles, to make a joke to lighten things up...

If MJs is going to survive we have to drive audience here, we can do that by improving content. Quality content pays money elsewhere, and elsewhere there's less hatefulness and resentment to deal with... Obviously there is a problem, which can only be solved by altruism on the part of the folks capable of providing quality content. Any questions?

I would imagine that the bottom line is something like this: refusal of the remaining quality producers to provide content here would close the site in one quarter. How many people is that? These days less than 10 people? Less than 10 key providers for the place. Give them some love people. Ask 11 people to listen here or loose the venue. Make a choice.

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Saturday, November 10 2018 @ 01:49 PM CST

Quote by: Daugrin

Other threats include the many sites which offer similar venues to producers without the cliquish qualities MJs is famous for... Finally there is the hateful world view of the self appointed gate keepers here who run anyone off who does not eat the culture as approved by their programing.

Quote by: Daugrin

The meme for the certain sign of mental illness is to continue doing the same behavior over and over and expecting different results at the completion of a cycle, no?
Daug

Quote by: Daugrin

My friend why do you insist on frequenting MJs to spout the party line?
Daug

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Monday, November 12 2018 @ 06:52 PM CST

I would imagine that the bottom line is something like this: refusal of the remaining quality producers to provide content here would close the site in one quarter. How many people is that? These days less than 10 people? Less than 10 key providers for the place. Give them some love people. Ask 11 people to listen here or loose the venue. Make a choice.
Daug

I fully agree!
A lot of words, but only a handful of people uploading stuff here
Come on, stop whining and start creating songs so macjams will live!
KC

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Thursday, November 15 2018 @ 10:43 AM CST

You know, for all the people who continue to prophesy the demise of MJ, one pronouncement continues to hold true for me ... as it has for many, many years.

I hear music here, and artists here, that I can find nowhere else on the Internet.

MJ has a very large and very diverse musical catalog stretching back over decades. (I am sorry that it no longer contains the random song-picker that introduced me to so very much of it, and hope sincerely that it will soon return.) I frankly don’t have the time or the patience to fool with SoundCloud or the many other sites that are populated by hopefuls whose only apparent purpose for being there is to become instantaneously rich-and-famous by virtue of their non-existent musical and production abilities. But I keep coming back to MJ. So, you must be doing something right, after all.

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Thursday, November 15 2018 @ 10:48 AM CST

Quote by: MikeRobinson You know, for all the people who continue to prophesy the demise of MJ, one pronouncement continues to hold true for me ... as it has for many, many years.

I hear music here, and artists here, that I can find nowhere else on the Internet.

MJ has a very large and very diverse musical catalog stretching back over decades. (I am sorry that it no longer contains the random song-picker that introduced me to so very much of it, and hope sincerely that it will soon return.) I frankly don’t have the time or the patience to fool with SoundCloud or the many other sites that are populated by hopefuls whose only apparent purpose for being there is to become instantaneously rich-and-famous by virtue of their non-existent musical and production abilities. But I keep coming back to MJ. So, you must be doing something right, after all.

Amen... I stand corrected.

Didn't mean to write off MJ, and I'm certainly not going to leave. No, not until they padlock the entrance. And may that NEVER come to pass...

"People claim there is no truth, and they assert this as true; they say that man can know nothing, but this is something they think they know; they claim that 'life' takes precedence over thought, and yet this is something they think!" (Frithjof Schuon)

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Thursday, November 15 2018 @ 05:09 PM CST

I want to be encouraged by the above comments. But without access for new singer/songwriters to sign up as MacJam members why would they want to come to MJ and listen to the music? They can't upload their music, let alone comment on songs. And why would oldies come back to a shrinking closed club as their only audience? This site has always been fueled by the members with a steady influx of new members who wanted to share their music and, as part of the deal, to listen, comment, critique, and encourage other MJ artists. Seems to me that the doors need to be reopened...

Simon?

Call me a pessimist, but I don't see how MJ resurrects without the retooling of a few things - at a minimum the ability for people to sign up as new members. Without that MJ will most likely just continue to limp along as is...

Re:UPDATE---To any who still care
Friday, November 16 2018 @ 01:24 PM CST

Quote by: Dadai.2 I want to be encouraged by the above comments. But without access for new singer/songwriters to sign up as MacJam members why would they want to come to MJ and listen to the music? They can't upload their music, let alone comment on songs. And why would oldies come back to a shrinking closed club as their only audience? This site has always been fueled by the members with a steady influx of new members who wanted to share their music and, as part of the deal, to listen, comment, critique, and encourage other MJ artists. Seems to me that the doors need to be reopened...

Simon?

Call me a pessimist, but I don't see how MJ resurrects without the retooling of a few things - at a minimum the ability for people to sign up as new members. Without that MJ will most likely just continue to limp along as is...